antarctica
antarctica seems to be a bit of an enigma. the glaciers are moving faster than ever before. that's a pretty good indicator that it's warmer. at the same time the snow pack is getting thicker. at first blush one would think that means it's colder. but that's what's confusing people. more snow can mean wetter. not necessarily colder. antarctica is plenty cold that it can get quite a bit warmer and still be really goddam cold. so at second thought, what's happening in antarctica suggests a warmer wetter world. hm. so how come the arctic and the antarctic are behaving differently? probably because one is land and the other is water. water is darker than land and snow. so when the arctic gets warm and the ice melts, it reflects less sunlight and gets even warmer. that doesn't happen in antarctica. cause when the snow melts... you expose more snow. and even if you managed to melt all of the snow, you'd expose land. which will reflect more sunlight than water. and stay colder than the arctic. cool huh?